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The Nerds Gummy Clusters Hype

Adriana Motta
May 8, 2024
2 min read

This new product taking social media by storm combines soft gummy centers with a coating of crunchy, tangy Nerds candy pieces, creating a multi-textural confectionery experience. Each piece features a fruity gummy center completely encased in the brand's signature tiny, irregularly shaped candy pieces.

Two Nerds Gummy Clusters bags: pink fruit flavor and blue berry flavor. Each has colorful designs with cartoon nerds and weighs 113g.

Product innovation

The product utilises innovative manufacturing technology that allows the precise application of tiny Nerds to adhere to a gummy substrate. The technical innovation involves solving adhesion challenges between two distinctly different candy textures while maintaining the product integrity and shelf stability.

Colorful candy sphere with a tangy, crunchy outside and sweet, gummy inside. Cartoon characters on pink background; text describes layers.

Nerds Gummy Clusters address the growing consumer demand for multi-sensory eating experiences.

The competitive advantage lies in creating an entirely new texture combination within the confectionery category, offering both the chewiness of gummies and the crunch of hard candy in a single bite. This unique textural interplay creates a distinctive eating experience that stands out in an extremely crowded market.

Development

The concept emerged from the brand's research showing strong consumer interest in texture combinations within confectionery. Ferrara, the parent company, developed the product through extensive testing to perfect the balance between gummy and crunchy elements while ensuring the pieces maintained their perfect integrity during production and distribution.

Close-up of colorful clusters of small round candies in blue, pink, green, yellow, and orange hues, creating a vibrant, textured pattern.

Trend

The product exemplifies what Mintel terms the "textural revolution" in confectionery, with 73% of consumers reporting that texture is as important as flavour in their snack choices.

According to NielsenIQ data from 2023, products offering textural contrasts grew by 18% year-on-year, significantly outpacing the broader confectionery category. And Euromonitor International reported that 67% of Gen Z and millennial consumers specifically seek out multi-textural food experiences.